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Huawei’s UK arm paid more than £8,600 to send executives to a networking event at the Conservative Party conference, in the same week US politicians said its technology should be blacklisted from American government systems. The company also paid £10,000 to the Liberal Democrats to sponsor a reception at its conference in Brighton.

{sigh} Once again, I feel sorry for Huawei.

Was it a smart move to make UK political contributions? If you have business there, it certainly makes a lot of sense, and (of course) everyone else, including Huawei’s competitors, are doing it. This is unfortunately the way things get done these days in developed countries where bribery is legal.

And what, according to a lot of critics, was Huawei’s big problem in overseas markets? For years, folks said that Huawei, and a lot of other Chinese companies, did not understand local practices. So now Huawei is doing just that, and they get burned for it.

This kind of thing looks great on paper, and can be a very effective strategy. But then the information gets out to the public, and what was once a great move blows up in your face and becomes a PR problem.